53% cited officials, 50% cited parents, 41% cited teachers always unions, 36% named administrators. what are the best ways to improve the system? 75% said recruiting and retaining better teachers, 64% said reducing class size, 54% said requiring teach to pass a competency test, 52% requiring students to pass standardized tests to move on to the next grade, 48% said spending more money on education. 65% would be willing to pay higher federal taxes to improve america's public schools. as part of our education nation initiative, president obama joins matt lauer for an exclusive, live interview. the president talks about responsibility of parents and announced a new initiative by his administration. >> every night at some point you have to say, your job right now, kid, is to learn, and i'm going to check with your teachers and

i'm going to make sure that you're doing your homework and you're not doing anything else until you've done your homework, and that kind of attitude, i think, makes a huge difference at every level. one thing i want to point out, matt, there's no doubt that the schools in the toughest neighborhoods and the poorest neighborhoods are oftentimes ones that are poorest performing, they are in crisis. but one of the things that everybody needs to understand is, is that across the board in some middle class suburbs, in schools that are considers actually pretty good, you are still seeing a decline in terms of platmath and science perform. one of the things we are excited about, because we need to focus on math and science, my administration is announcing that we are going to specifically focus on training 10,000 new math and science teachers. we've got to boost performance in that area. >> the president pointed out

american students rank far down the list of 30 developed nations. in the subjects of math and science. america's failing public schools have resulted in a growth of so-called chart schools, other private schools as well, which have won high praise across the nation. joining me is matt goldman, one of the founders of the blue man group and is one of the founders of an innovative private school in new york called what else, but the blue school. good to have you with us. tell us about the school itself and the goals of it and why you wanted to be a part of this. >> yeah, well, there were six of us who started the blue school, and three of us were founders of blue man group here in new york, and then our partners, and what we wanted to do was start a school that filled in the gaps of what -- the parts of our education we thought were missing. >> right. >> we had public education, we had private education. so we wanted to focus on creativity, sewing creativity into subject matter, having

social and emotional learning, being on an equal weight of any academic subject and inquiry-based learning, and we wanted to talk to the children, the teachers, and the parents as a triad and build the school as a community. >> let's talk about the kids, though, because you went after the youth, the youngest ones. >> that's right. >> talking about 4, 5, 6-year-olds. why did you think it was early to target so young? >> it's very important in our view to star with this kind of approach right from the beginning. in fact we have 2s and 3s program, too. the 2s program are actually with the parents. and if you are taught right from the get-go of identifying your own emotionals state, identifying the state of other, and figuring out in conflict resolution, for example, how can we make this right, these skills are transferred and they lead to better collaborative skills and

a better sense of one's own self. >> now, as a co-founder of blue man group new york one can accuse of you of not having a crazy imagination. imagination is an important part of your curriculum. >>creativity, being able to be yourself. but at the same time we brought in the best experts possible that we could find to help us with the curriculum side of the equation, there's a lot of neuroscience base learning in our approach, and we back it up with the kinds of studies and research that we feel is to create something new, you have to be able to bring with you the best of what's happened but also be willing to take risks. >> i have to go. do the blue men ever show up for the kids? the blue men have been known to come, but for importantly kid dozen crazy blue man stuff too. >> excellent. young ones in training.

join us for a special hour at 2:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc hosted by tom brokaw, education secretary arne duncan delivering a reverse commencement address. instead of giving it at the end of the school year, he will be delivering it here at the beginning of the year. that's at2:00 p.m. eastern. find out about the programs available to imrov your child's education by visit educationnation dorm. click on learn more, find the app with resources on everything from how your school stacks up against others to local parenting and chat groups. find it all at educationnation.com. in other news today, the georgia pastor in the center of a sex scandal says he'll be back at the pulpit next sunday. four men say that bishop eddie long lures them insexual

relationships when they were teens. he faced his congregation fors first timing since accusations surfac surfaces. >> i've been accused. i'm under attack. i'm not a perfect man. but this thing, i'm going to fight. i feel like david against goliath, but i've got five rocks and i haven't thrown one yet. >> i'm joined by journalist and author, keith boykin editor of "the daily voice." talk about the fact the bishop has spoke. we hear the rousing support he got from his congregation and roughly it's thousands upon thousands that show up to hear this man preach. what about the reaction? what do you think? is he speak too late. >> i think he is speaking to late. i know bishop long i met him before, been to his church. i used to teach at the high school in the ar where he preaches. and my sense is that the

community there, at least the community of people in the church, are going to continue to support him but the people outside of the community are asking questions that aren't being answered. he didn't say in his sermon that they denied allegations. that's interesting because basically he said that it's not true the way he's been represented but he didn't specifically deny the charges that have been brought against him. i think that's going to hurt him in the long run. >> let's talk about the fact how we can classify this in all of these different categories. potential will a man that's a pedophile, we have a married man, we have a man of a heavily-dominated black church in south. there are so many ways to cut this apart to try to understand it. i want to ask, from a criminal standpoint if these boys feel they were criminally molested by the bishop, why haven't they gone to the police to file criminal charges? >> the question of criminal molestation here is a question of whether they were of age. most of them were above the age of consent at the time when the

alleged activity took place, there isn't really necessarily a criminal case to be brought here. we don't know if there's other people out there, too, so that's a possibility. i can tell you this, there are a lot of different ways to look at this case, but the truth is, this is bigger than just eddie long. it's about hypocrisy and homophobia in the black church and the church in general. that's a big problem. it hasn't been dealt with. hopefully this will force people to start to teal wideal with th >> it's a situation where either there had to be something criminally done and if it was because the boys were underage. are we saying that he did something inappropriate because he lured them into these physical relationships? >> well, you know, the legal issue in terms of what's criminally responsible and what's liable in terms of civil responsibility are for the courts to decide. this case is being tried in the court of public opinion right now which is why eddie long is falling behind the curve. the public is looking at photos and saying why would any

57-year-old pastor send photos like that to a 16-year-old boy, regardless of whether it's true it's inappropriate for a man of god, a plan supposed to be anti-gay, a family man married with four children it doesn't look right. i guarantee you this, there won't be any more presidents visiting new birth baptist church, there won't be any more fine ra funerals for civil righ leaders anymore. >> he's supposed to be back there next sunday. is that a smart move? >> a think he's going to his base. the only place he knows he has support is among 25,000 member of the new birth church. he's going to go there. the people will continue to support him, though they should open their eyes and ask questions. part of the problem is we can't continue to blindly support our leaders, our religious leaders or any other type of leaders especially when the evidence doesn't ad up. the bigger problem is about christianity, people supposed to be christian. i understand you don't rush to judgment but we have to ask,

what about four, young men? what about their lives? what happened to them? the idea that eddie long is one of the chief prosperity ministers riding around in a bentley and flying around with his own private jet and teaching this anti-gay, anti-progressive message, what kind of christianity is he preaching? a lot of people will start asking questions about him and others as a result of the stanzstan scandal. >> keith boykin, thanks so much. on capitol hill right now the fight over whether to extend middle class tax cuts is still brewing. democrats have delays the vote on the issue until after the election and that has republicans fuming mad. in nothing is done by december 31st, the bush era tax cuts will expire, and everyone will be hit with a higher tax bracket. leaders of both parties took their arguments on the sunday talk shows. >> there should be no higher priority for the congress of the united states today than making sure that no american sees a tax increase in january of 2011. >> i think it would be

unconscionable for this congress to adjourn without giving the bipartisan majority in the congress that wants to extend all current tax relief an up or down vote. >> with the republicans have said, and they said it again in this pledge is, what we've said is we want to extend tax cuts for people up to $250,000 of income, that would wovcover 98% the american people. they say, no, we won't do that. we want to borrow $700 billion over the next ten years to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires and we're saying we can't afford that, not in our fiscal condition. >> nbc's like russert is on capitol hill. so, luke, explain why are we at this point right now? >> reporter: well, essentially what we've seen here, thomas, last week the united states senate, dick durbin said this issue's punted until after the midterm elections because the democratic caucus in the senate could not reach a cohesive majority in terms of what they

believe should be the pass forward on tax cut issue. the legislation cannot be completely fixed because you need the senate vote to be there. you could see an 11th hour campaign in the house, which is taken up by progressive house liberals who have circulated a letter signed by over 41 members to have nancy pelosi try to extend the middle class tax cuts and then not extend them for the highest earners. why do they want to do this? they want to say we're on the side of middle class tax relief, challenging republicans to come out against it. however, on the democratic side in the house, there is still a lot of infighting as to whether to do on the tax cut issue. blue dogs circulated their own letter which said there should be a one-year extension of the tax cuts until the economy comes back 110%. what will nancy pelosi do? a lot of folks are telling me they will punt the issue until after midterms, as it is safer. she does not want to have her democrats walk the plank.

there is still a possibility you could see a bringing up a vote on the rules of suspensions republicans cannot offer an amendment. it needs 2/3 of majority to pass. you could see house democrats promote that idea of extending middle class tax cuts under suspension rules but republicans can't offer amendments or they can't make democrats look that bad. but with all of that being said, sources tell us it's going to happen after midterms, the issue has been punted. >> a lot of interesting talks on the sunday talk shows, that's for sure. thank you. >> reporter: always a pleasure. a flight one group of passengers will never forget. this is what they heard right before they landed at jfk. take a listen. heads down. stay down. heads down. stay down. >> wow. coming up, find out how the pilot of the jet landed without part of his landing gear. plus -- are they the real secret weapon? how women could hold the key for

democrats' hopes to keep the house and senate in november. caught on video. the navy has opened an investigation into why 2 $33 million choppers dipped into lake tahoe before righting themselves. mary: does this dress make my backside look big? abe: perhaps... save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance?really host: is having a snowball fight with pitching great randy johnson a bad idea? man: yeah, i'm thinking maybe this was a bad idea. no, that's the name of the new oreo cookie. what's the name of the new oreo cookie? [ eli ] heads or tails. tails. tails. heads. heads. tails. heads. heads? oh, no. heads. what? [ shaq ] heads. [ venus ] tails. [ apolo ] tails.

officials are investigating why a delta airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at jfk with a third of its landing gear. delta connection flight 4951 was on its way from atlanta to white plains over weekend when it was diverted. 60 people were on board the flight when the landing gear malfunctioned. when the plane hit the runway, sparks flew and one of the wings dragged on to the tarmac. cell phone video captured what some of passengers experienced. >> heads down.

stay down. heads down. stay down. heads down, stay down. heads down. stay down. whoo! >> wow, can you imagine that? all of the amount of sparks flying off 0 that as you saw there. joining me is a former national transportation safety board chairman and current nbc contributor. mark, it's just eye-opening when you hear the people on board, i'm assuming the flight attendant saying get down, get down, repeatedly, staying calm but firm and you say it's the cockpit crew that made the difference. >> i think it was a team effort, clearly. what we had here was good training in the cockpit. we had excellent execution in the cockpit and we had tremendous professionalism displays by the cabin crew. when you add all of those things together, i think that's where you've got this magnificent result. >> and explain to all of us, as

we're seeing with this wing dragging on the runway, i'm sure amazing to all of that is fly so often, that the wing didn't break off or possibly the plane roll over. can you explain what helped to prevent that? >> this aircraft was coming in with one of its main landing gear retracted. now, the pilots are trained for this in simulators, and the important thing is, is to make sure you're able to bring this aircraft in and try to keep it straight, and when it does finally lose its lift and the right wing settles on to the runway, that you are able to try to stop it as quickly as possible and keeping it on the runway as well. again, training and tremendous execution here. >> explain to us, you know, some of us would look at this and say a little bit of luck has to play into this as well because a tiny fraction of a turn or something on the runway could have made this an entirely different

outcome. >> luck plays a role in pretty much everything we do. but you make your own luck. the reality of life is you had some experienced cog pit crew members able to display outstanding airmanship. let's give tremendous credit to the cabin crew that were able to keep the passengers from jumping up from doing something which, in fact, might have caused their injury. the cabin crew took control of the situation, asked everyone, matter of fact didn't ask demanded in a controlling voice to do what they needed to do keep themselves in that seat, keep their heads down and make sure that they were in a safe condition before departing the aircraft. >> the entire crew modern day heroes today, especially all of the passengers on board the flight. thank you. >> good to be with you. democrats will be pressing to get women voters to the polls because they could make the biggest difference come november. can women save the democrats' hopes of holding power? then the palestinian president said today he's

waiting to decide whether to pull out of middle east peace talks 37 martin fletcher will be here with latest on the very delica delicate negotiations. let me know at twitter.com/thomas roberts. stay once... stay twice... earn a free night! two separate stays at comfort inn or any of these choice hotels can earn you a free night -- only when you book at choicehotels.com.

can earn you a free night -- words alone aren't enough. my job is to listen to the needs and frustrations of the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel or restaurant workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. bp has taken full responsibility for the clean up in the gulf and that includes keeping you informed. our job is to listen and find ways to help. that means working with communities. restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund to cover lost income until people impacted

can get back to work. and our efforts aren't coming at tax-payer expense. i know people are wondering-- now that the well is capped, is bp gonna meet its commitments? i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right.

36 days it the med term elections and it appears courting women voters are is the key for democrats to hold majorities in the house and the senate. writing about the strategic voting bloc for "the washington post," the national political reporter. dan joins us there now. talk about what you did write. part of the democrats' problems this year is men have turned against them in big numbers, white, blue collar men are particularly alienated from the party. this is coming from democratic strategists as well. why do you think so with 36 days

left to go in? why is this happening? >> there's a gender gap in politics and women are more likely to support democrats than men. with the economic problems, there has been significant defection among men. and women still more strongly support the democrats but not in either the enthusiasm or the levels the democrats need to really feel comfortable about being able to hold their majority. so they need to focus on that and they need to find ways to motivate the women who have often come out in the past to come out this fall. >> as we talk about this gender gap, are we talking about single or married women? >> primarily talking about unmarried women. married women particularly white married women, are more likely to vote republican or vote democratic in smaller numbers. unmarried women have always been the stalwarts of the democratic base. but many have been very hard hit by this economic recession and, therefore, the things are pretty

tough for them. they are less motivated to vote this time. there's a big fall-off between a presidential election year vote and a midterm election year vote, particularly among women, and democrats know this. it's a particular problem this fall. >> since so many are hurting financially, also might be a big driver or indicator for people getting out to the polls and do their civic duty and vote. what can the democrats do to get a better footholding with women? >> what they hope they can do is point out differences between the democratic agenda and the republican agenda because they think if they can make that case more effectively, more women will see that their interests lie with the democrats. we'll see whether that turns out to be true but that's certainly their belief if you put the agenda that the republicans put out last week against the agenda that president obama has been pushing, that it is better for women under president obama. but they haven't been able to make that case effectively enough this year. >> also think that women are

noticing that there are stronger female republican candidates to probably get behind as well? >> well, this certainly is a factor in this, i think. and if you look at california, where you have two women running for senate and governor on the republican ticket, you're seeing some evidence of that. although it is more the case in the gubernatorial race with meg whitman than the senate race wi carly fiorina because the positions fiorina has taken are more conservative than meg whitman. appeals court rules a mother convicted of killing the man she believes raped her infant daughter did what any other mother should have done. should she serve less than the 67 years that she was sentenced for. hundreds of wisconsin residents forced to flow homes after a levee fails. katy perry fires back at sesame street without saying a

word. very memorable appearance on snl coming up in the scoop. ool kids to have more exposure to the arts. ool kids maybe you want to provide meals for the needy. or maybe you want to help when the unexpected happens. whatever you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer, or donate for the causes you believe in at membersproject.com. take charge of making a difference.

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♪ feels sweet when i can touch you ♪ palestinian president abbas say his will wait a week before deciding whether to quit middle eastern peace talks. overnight israel's freeze on settlement construction in the west bank expired and israel's prime minister nettena hue urged the palestinians to continue negotiations. some jewish settlers rejected netanyahu's pleas by breaking ground on a settlement inside the west bank. after 30 years reporting for nbc nor the middle east, martin fletchers decided to look at israel from a new perspective "walking israel" and. great to have you with us today. appreciate your time. congratulations on the book. but let's talk about what happened over night with the moratorium on the development ex-spiring and how quickly people are getting work to building. >> getting back to work rather slowly for the time being but

another 2,000 homes ready to go, licensed to build. what it means the palestinians are already in a bind now. abbas, by delaying the decision for a week, decided not to decide. he's going to the arab league october 4, get other arab countries to help him agree to continue with the peace talks despite failing in his attempt to get the israelis to stop building settlement. it's a major compromise by the palestinians if talks go ahead. we'll find out in a week. >> where does america stand to keep them at the table? >> desperate to keep the palestinians at the table, desperate to get israel to stop building settlements in order to keep the palestinians at table. america wants a way forward obama said we need a deal within a year. israelis have not agreed to stop building settlements and that's a challenge to the united states, as well. >> with the moratorium expired, everyone's going to be looking at abbas and netanyahu and see who will act with words and deeds.

who is the pressure on more? netanya netanyahu? >> he shrugs off the pressure. pressure is on palestinians to go will we go ahead with the talks. >> i want to talk quickly, you're here to talk about the book itself. you went from lebanon to gaza walking the entire way. why did you do there is? a lot of us -- >> that's a good question. i actually did it because the world looks at israel from only one point of view really, a nation in conflict, which it is. as we see from the peace talks urgent need to solve the problems. i wanted to look at israel from a different perspective, walk along the coast, look east. 70% of israelis live on the coastal plane with 1 millionaire rabs they're living with. is this an example for the peace process? is there a way forward? i found out there is. >> after 30 years, some would say you probably couldn't find anything that would surprise you or be eye opening. are there things that you

discovers during this jumpfully? >> it confirmed what i knew. people always said to me, martin, is it safe to visit israel? i said, yeah, come visit. after a week they say, it's a great place. i had no idea. i wanted to write a book about the great place where people have no idea. i met such interesting people who i would never have come across in my reporting. it was a very interesting thing for me to do. >> great to see you. thanks so much. the capsule that will help carry 33 chileans miners to safety is now at that mine. here it is, arrives over the weekend. a promising sign for miners and families. the miners are enjoying a few perks, including laundry service, tv and three hot meals a day. for dessert, they get ice cream to help cool down. a failing levee forcing come wisconsin residents to evacuate their homes. heavy rains pounded the area,

prompting a state of emergency. in portage the swollen river flood the only road in and out of the area. officials say the levee built back in 1890 has not completely collapsed but floodwaters are expected to keep rising over the next several days. u.s. military has launched an investigation after a tourist captured this video. take a look on a cell phone back on september 13th. those are two navy mh-60 romeo helps each worth more than 30 million buck hovering over lake tahoe. they've clearly misjudged their altitude, causing choppers to dip into the water for a few seconds before recovering and then flying away. the crews were apparently trying to take photos of each other's helicopters. jim miklaszewski joins us break down the video and also the status. jim, what's the status of the investigation? the reaction of everybody who sees this video,icallying those in the military, is, whoa!

these helicopters are not designed to do this. and navy officials say this was definitely not any kind of training mission that, as you say, apparently the two crews decided they wanted to get some happy snaps of these helicopters hovering over the placid lake tahoe with the majestic mountains in the background when something went wrong. exactly what is up to the mishap go board to determine. they were trying to hoover when the weight of the helicopter forced the helicopters down into the water. that still is a big question mark because some are questioning in the video whether these pilots intentionally dipped their helicopters into the water, which, of course, would be extremely dangerous. intentional or not, it's very likely that these -- the flying careers of these two crews will probably be over, no matter what happens because those helicopters shun have been there at that time.

>> talk about the staffing. the crews on board, how many people would have been on board those helicopters? >> reporter: these helicopters are the equivalent of the army's black hawk helicopter was usually have a crew of five. not clear since the helicopters were in transit they needed all five. this was a very risky situation which, quite frankly, could have ended in disaster. >> absolutely. the tourists coming by must have thought, what the heck are we witnessing here? great to see you. tens of thousands of people are set to lose their jobs within weeks unless congress steps in to save the stimulus act. the stimulus helped pay for new jobs in the public and private sector. it's going to expire after next thursday while the obama administration is calling to extend the program, it is meeting with some resistance from republicans who oppose the stimulus. we return now our special focus this week on education and how we can help our children succeed in america, as part of our "education nation" initiative. nbc news and msnbc transferred

rockefeller plaza into an interactive learning plaza. cool exhibits going on, learning tools for young and old. we invite you to check it out. we should have invited mother nature because we would have had a better day. logon to our website at home. among the tools, one that tells you specifically how you learn. it's how do you learn.educationnation.com. sponsors by the university of phoenix. michael white, chief technology officer at university of phoenix. walk us through this. i'm going to tell you how i fared. i did it. >> great. let's do it. i think just to tee up, everyone learns differently and it's important to know how you learn and there's all of these different techniques. maybe you can take another path. >> on the site, f. we went there, how many requequestions asked? >> 35 questions.

they're light weight, a lost of cognitive science, it ascertains who are you, how do you learn? >> i should not be afraid to have taken this test. >> yil be able to do it easily. >> it gives you primary learning style and lets you know how to move forward. for me, number one came um social. >> lie believe that. i get that. >> it wasn't so much of a shock. but if it comes up that way, what does it tell you if you are a student, how you need to learn, how to apply this. >> if you're a social learner you do well with groups. when you go to study you don't want it be in solitary confinement and get the books and shut the door. you want to work with people interactively, having a discussion with folks and that's what we're doing, especially taking things online, that you want to have those conversations as well and that's what social community provides you online. it doesn't have to be a physical conversation. >> the number two for me came up as solitary. >> yeah. >> i ranked highest in social and the second was solitary. i need to be social and lock myself in a room and high. >> you have to go back and

figure it out for yourself, sounds like, yeah. >> when we get determinations, how many different ones are there that we could be classified as being a part of? how many different classifications are there for primary styles? >> there are seven. where your fren strengths are. for some things you want to hear audser to ily, other things you want to do it socially. of the people we had 7,000 people take it yesterday when it was dry in new york, it was 47% had a premonition to be a solitary learner. >> it must be popular. mother nature didn't show up today but yesterday a lot of people coming here. they were amazes to learn about themselves. >> it's a great tool for parents. if parents are trying to take the classic textbook and their student is not getting the standard deviation, they can take oh means, go on the web, youtube, look at video. find out how your child learns. >> it's fun for everybody,

parents, kids, take a couple of minutes and go through this. and family dinner talk about how to best implement it, maybe mom and dad they learn differently from the kids but get great insight into children's lives awell. >> thanks for your time. find out more about many resources and the programs available to improve your child's education by visiting educationnation.com, click on learn more. see the college center app with information on what's being done to help ensure more students graduate from college. take some tests as well, which are pretty cool. special coverage all day here on msnbc. former first daughter jenna bush hager, a former teacher, will be here to discuss seed schools. again, that's at 2:00 p.m. eastern, a special hour coming your way as well on msnbc hosted by tom brokaw. education secretary arne duncan will deliver a speech that he gives at the end of the school year. that's at 2:00 p.m. eastern here

on msnbc. stay with us. back with much more after this. sure i'd like to diversify my workforce, i just wish that all of the important information was gathered together in one place. [ printer whirs ] done. ♪ thanks. do you work here? not yet. from tax info to debunking myths, the field guide to evolving your workforce has everything you need. download it now at thinkbeyondthelabel.com. you struggle to control your blood sugar. you exercise and eat right, but your blood sugar may still be high, and you need extra help. ask your doctor about onglyza, a once daily medicine used with diet and exercise to control high blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. adding onglyza to your current oral medicine may help reduce after meal blood sugar spikes

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expenses and investment objectives before purchasing a variable annuity. contact a financial professional for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. whoo hoo! in today's true crime, a man who shot five people at an offcampus party at seton hall ruft is still at large this morning. one woman dies after gunman opened fire friday. the begun was angry was he was kicks out of the party for refusing to pay a cover charge. a mom may have her sentence reduced because of an appeals court saying she was provoked. she was convicted in 2006 of killing her neighbor, alonzo jones. calhoun told police she killed jones because he admitted to raping her infant daughter. after hearing his confession, calhoun, her sister and a group of others attacks jones for hours, kicking him, slashing him

with bottles. they even ran over him with a car. i'm joined by defense attorney rebecca rose woodland. this is such a disturbing case to think about because the calhoun woman noticed that her daughter, 1-year-old, was showing signs of some type of sexual abuse. when she confronted her neighbor, he admitted it. so let's talk about this from the legal aspect. >> sure. >> of why now could she possibly get a reduced sentence. >> she went to court, the judge found her guilty of first-degree murder in chicago. he didn't sentence her to death, there weren't aggravating factors. he sentenced her to life by sag 67 years in prison. the appeal, that's outrageous. in chicago, it's approximately 20 to 25 years an average sentence force this crime, this type of murder in this situation. they said, she had aggravating circumstances which would reduce her time in jail. the time she could have served

maximum 60 years on the murder, 7 other years for the kidnapping and some other things. so what an appeals court is saying, this is a special circumstance, this is a situation that is taken out of the norm because she was so aggravated and she will not repeat offend. the instigation for the offense was the child. >> right. that's one of the big pushes as well, saying this is not a person to be a reoffender whereas there are situations where people get out of jail and reoffend. but this was a special circumstance. how is this going to fare? >> i think t district attorney will try to appeal to the highest court in chicago. when you look at statistics and you see that this judge, this particular judge, is very difficult from what i understand from my colleagues in chicago, i made some phone calls, he's a very tough judge. so the appeals court takes that into account, too, and says, judge, you're a little beyond the normal standards of a murder case in general and this one is out of the ordinary.

so i think the highest court in chicago, if they hear the appeal, will probably agree with the appellate court, which is the decision of reducing her senten sentence. >> because it is an uncommon defense to take this position. >> yeah. i mean, this is so special, this circumstance. i think anyone human can understand a mother with a 1-year-old child, this is not a speculation. this man pa parentally, by numerous witness accounts said, yeah, i did it and almost taunted her with the behavior of i sexually assaulted your charge. that's an aggressive behavior that her response, the appellate court is saying, done man date 67 years. >> all the way around. it's disturbing from all sides of thing but was most parents can understand where this woman was coming from when she was trying to protect her child. >> sure. >> rebecca, thanks so much. great to see you. signs that lindsay lohan could be serious about changing her life for the better. details next in the scoop.

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which would you choose with your meal? most of america still orders fries. the study that comes from the center for disease control reveals although 26% of adults eat veggies three or more times a day and no, that doesn't include french fries unfortunately. lindsay lohan takes steps to change her life, blockbuster talks about katy perry with a skit for adults only.

let's start off with lindsay. >> lindsay lohan spent the weekend out of jail which is what's notable. a little more than a dozen hours in jail. people close to her are saying she will be checking herself into rehab shortly. that said, she doesn't seem to act like she wants to get out of the public eye. she was spotted at a homeless shelter in los angeles last night called the dream center. she and her mom and sister were there. she tweeted about it later. this looks like a pr stunt. if you didn't want it to be, do good and don't tweet about it. make sure photos are not taken. this is good that has gone bad. yes, that outreach center should have people come and be uplifting and that sort of thing, but under the circumstances, it does smack of a pr stunt. she is photographed with her bracelet on. interesting to me is that she went to great lengths last time

she had it to keep it covered up. now she is wearing short shorts and saying hey, everyone, i have the bracelet on. >> that is not the beeper at cheesecake factory that means your table is ready. >> definitely not. the new wall street movie is number one. the sequel money never sleeps. it took in $19 million. that's more than the number two by about three million. legend of the guardians, the owl movie. everyone is calling it. it's a wonderfully animated film who goes off to save the world. 16.3 million and the ben affleck movie. 16 million for ben affleck. he is showing him. >> a home run every time. >> "saturday night live" came back this weekend. the ratings up over last year.

i loved the sketch with katy perry. take a look. >> what happened to your shirt? >> looks like "today" show is brought to you by the number 38 and the letter double d. >> that's a spoof on the conflict that katy perhe with her sesame street appearance. they said the shirt was too risque for their kids to see and "saturday night live" is making fun of that. katy perry will be on the simpsons as well. she hasn't been hurt too badly with her playdate with elmo being canceled. >> she is fantastic. >> she has fun with it. that's what's great. you can she loves doing what she does. >> i want to remind everyone you can always logon to scoop.todayshow.com. that will do it for me this hour. contessa brewer will pick things up at the top of the hour. >> at noon, the woman at the

center of a landmark don't ask don't tell case talks about her fight and being reinstated into the military. a jet making an emergency landing in new york. you will hear from a passenger on board that flight. incredible. education nation. former first daughter and teacher jenna bush haeger talks about the impact seed schools have on inner city kids. when i had my heart attack, i couldn't believe it. it was a real shock.

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to find cleaner, more efficient ways to power flight. ♪ and harness our technology for new energy solutions. [ female announcer ] around the globe, the people of boeing are working together, to build a better tomorrow. that's why we're here. ♪ >> i'm contessa brewer covering the big news coast to coast and the countdown is on for the mid-term elections. democrats push for example a substantial zuchl in enthusiasm and commitment from voters. campaigns are putting a bull's-eye below the belt. taking on his republican opponent for his stand on women's issues. >> she should submit to me. that's in the bible. >> webster tried to deny